CatrapReview

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The obscure origin of time-rewinding gameplay mechanics, back for an encore through the 3DS Virtual Console.

By Lucas M. Thomas

Catrap is an absolute hidden gem. An obscure puzzle design that quietly launched for the original Game Boy over 20 years ago and then was mostly forgotten for the next two decades, it's been enjoying a resurgence in notoriety and popularity across the Internet in recent years thanks to someone remembering one unique detail about it – it includes the gaming industry's very first time-rewinding gameplay mechanic.

More modern titles like Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Braid have popularized the idea of erasing your mistakes instantaneously – you miss a jump, you screw up a task and you just press a button and watch all your movements rewind themselves until you get back to a point before your error and can try again. Catrap is the game that first did it, though, and going back in time to experience the birth of "going back in time" is one heck of a fantastic retro trip.

The core of Catrap is that two young kids, Catboy and Catgirl, are trapped in an underground labyrinth and must clear the monsters out of 100 puzzle rooms to escape and be restored to human form. Beating the monsters is a simple as touching them – but to get to them you'll have to climb ladders, break through walls, move rocks out of the way and more. It's an easy task through the first handful of chambers, but quickly becomes brain-boggling partway into the quest. A good late '80s/early '90s era puzzler.

But that time-rewinding mechanic is what pushes it to the next level. Most other puzzlers of this type force you to lose a life and restart a room from scratch if you get stuck or make a wrong move. Catrap just lets you hold down the A Button and watch your little Catkid magically reverse everything they've done wrong. It's wonderfully convenient, and makes the whole game feel much more winnable – puzzles like this could be frustrating with forced restarts, but being able to try something, see that it didn't work, reverse time a bit and then try something else is refreshing.

The Verdict

It's just a shame that more games haven't tried to recapture this magic through the past 20 years. But with the excellence of Catrap now restored to the spotlight and available more prominently for modern audiences, maybe we'll see this unique style of puzzler catch on and inspire some new imitators. (Or even a direct sequel!)